Reflections on a year of Marriage and a lifetime of Movies

All photos courtesy of Angela and Evan Photography

I was planning on breaking tons of copyright laws by posting the movie montage K and created slaved over to play for our guests during our wedding reception.  Some people do slide shows of themselves throughout their lives; we made a five minute montage of  our favorite romantic movie clips.  That's just how we roll.  But due to my lack of technological savvy, I am unable to upload it (instead, I will just regale you with photos from our wedding courtesy of our amazing photographers, Angela and Evan.  Seriously, if you are getting married, check them out!). Our wedding day, was the best day of my life so far, with so many amazing and moving moments but this montage that K and I carefully crafted for months before our wedding was really one of the most emotional, purely happy moments of my life.  Although, I think it was a moment at our wedding, that was really appreciated only by K and I, showing this montage and sharing our love of cinema with this silly five minute video.

Now, nearly a year later, is almost official (as of this Sunday, April 28th) .  K and I are no longer newlyweds.  I have been thinking a lot about our wedding and about our marriage.  I knew that I wanted to pay tribute to our one year of marriage and the 11 (!) years we have been together.  What better way than the thing that brings us closest, cinema?

Therefore, in true movie geek fashion, here in list form are the top 10 amazing memories / thanks / feelings, etc. I have for you, K in the dark (I mean in the theatre, you dirty devil!)

Our beautiful wedding party. 

First kiss!

Enjoying our reception.  Of course, K had to cover his
Mr. sign with his coat. Typical!

1. I wouldn't say that I regret that our first date wasn't a movie, but it probably should have been.  Although, our second date (and many countless others since than have been) was.  We saw The Others that night, but since then we have had some wonderful theatre experiences (and some terrible ones!).  Some of the more memorable ones for me: Sing Along Hedwig and the Angry Inch, being asked to escort teenagers into Jackass, you shushing people at Rififi, going to the Cinematheque Francaise,  and so many freaking SIFF screenings!
2. Thank you for sharing films with me that you haven't always loved, or even gotten wrong (Rois et Reine?  I hear what you're saying but you're completely wrong).  And thank you for sharing movies with me that I haven't loved and have maybe gotten wrong (Jules et Jim, I guess I need to revisit that one).You have taught me patience in both instances and to expand my horizons and I have discovered movies I love that I never would have seen (Cranes are Flying). 
3.  Our Marathons. Even though we may never finish the Spencer Tracey one.
4. Thank you for watching countless movies with my fake French, Mexican and now Venezuelan (I'm so international) boyfriends with me!  Thank you also for listening to me match-making for my fake boyfriends for freaking hours on end.  
5.  Looking over at you and seeing a huge smile on your face when Yoda was fighting was adorable.
6.  Our secret movie language.  I love that we have silly little names for people (Mon Boo and Monsieur Dirty Hot among them) and that we can quote some movies to each other and know exactly what the other one means.  (Ripley and Withnail specifically). 
7.  I love that any given evening I can experience moments of surprise, sadness, outrage, true joy and let's be honest sometimes extreme boredom with you just by sitting on our couch together, watching a movie.  Some of my best memories are on that couch (or at the cabin, or in a hotel, or even a yurt), whether it be the shocking revelation in  The Celebration, watching Singin' in the Rain a million times, or  even suffering through a boring movie just to be able to count it on our list of movies we'd seen (Lawless most recently. So boring!  Even though it had the Hardigan!)
8. I love our debates the way that you challenge me to be a more critical viewer.  Some of the best discussions of my life have been in the car ride home with you trying to parse out what I liked or didn't like about a movie (Waltz with Bashir and most recently our afternoon discussing Django Unchained).
9.  I love that I can call you in an outrage that an article got some minor fact wrong, or some list that excluded a movie I love (as in this week when time out called Anna Karina,  Godard's lover, when she was clearly his ex-wife! duh!) and you won't think i'm that crazy. And you listen to me rant all the time about the career moves of my above mentioned fake boyfriends. Merci. 
10. I have seen our relationship reflected in so many cinematic couples over the years, from Don and Kathy, to Nick and Nora, to yes, Jesse and Celine (although let me see Before Midnight first before you hold me to that one.  Because, seriously, if they break up I may not only murder all three of them but I won't be able to believe in love anymore.  Luckily, I wrote this post first).  I love you more when I watch couples that remind me of us and it makes me realize how lucky we are to have each other.  Our love is better than a Hollywood Romance.  You are my lucky star. 

Here's to 365 days of marriage and many more hundreds of movies together. Je t'aime.

Julie